海

In Chinese, the bottom right component is 母 with 2 dots, yielding 海. In Japanese shinjitai, this component is simplified to 毋 (1 cross stroke), yielding 海 (氵+毎). Both forms are encoded under the same Unicode codepoint – see Han unification.

海 (Kangxi radical 85, 水+7 in Chinese and Korean, 水+6 in Japanese, 10 strokes in Chinese and Korean, 9 strokes in Japanese, cangjie input 水人田卜 (EOWY) or 水人田十 (EOWJ), four-corner 3815₇, composition ⿰氵每(GHTKV or U+FA45) or ⿰氵毎(J or U+2F901))

• 嗨, 𢲨, 𤍃, 𫗀, 𥉪, 𤀇, 𦷫, 𬕧, 𩘫, 塰

• KangXi: page 625, character 14
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 17450
• Dae Jaweon: page 1023, character 11
• Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 3, page 1627, character 1
• Unihan data for U+6D77
• Unihan data for U+FA45
• Unihan data for U+2F901

Historical forms of the character 海
Western Zhou	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Bronze inscriptions	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Phono-semantic compound (形聲／形声, OC *hmlɯːʔ) : semantic 氵 (“water”) + phonetic 每 (OC *mɯːʔ).

Probably related to 晦 (OC *hmɯːs, “dark”); in numerous Zhou texts 海 is described as 晦 (Schuessler, 2007). Compare the parallelism in Chinese: 溟 (OC *meːŋ, *meːŋʔ, “ocean”) < 冥 (OC *meːŋ, “dark”).

STEDT compares 海 (OC *hmlɯːʔ) to Proto-Sino-Tibetan *muːŋ ~ r/s-muːk (“foggy; dark; sullen; menacing; thunder”).

海

1. sea; ocean

   好想去看海。  ―  Hǎo xiǎng qù kàn hǎi.  ―  I really want to go and look at the sea.

2. big lake

   洱海  ―  Ěrhǎi  ―  Er Lake

3. (Cantonese) wide river
4. (of containers, amount, etc.) big; large

   海碗  ―  hǎiwǎn  ―  extra large bowl

   海量  ―  hǎiliàng  ―  huge amount

5. overseas; abroad

   海棗／海枣  ―  hǎizǎo  ―  date palm

6. (figurative) sea; abundance; infiniteness

   人海  ―  rénhǎi  ―  huge crowd

   火海  ―  huǒhǎi  ―  sea of flames

7. (dialectal, colloquial) profuse; numerous
8. (dialectal, colloquial) unrestrainedly; randomly; casually
9. a surname. Hai (mainland China, Taiwan), Hoi (Hong Kong)

   海瑞  ―  Hǎi Ruì  ―  Hai Rui (Chinese scholar-official of the Ming dynasty)

Others:

• → Bouyei: haaic
• → Zhuang: haij

• “海”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學／香港中文大学 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–

(grade 2 “Kyōiku” kanji, shinjitai kanji, kyūjitai form 海)

1. sea, ocean
2. vastly gathered
3. large, wide

• Go-on: かい (kai, Jōyō)
• Kan-on: かい (kai, Jōyō)
• Kun: うみ (umi, 海, Jōyō); わた (wata, 海); わだ (wada, 海)
• Nanori: あ (a); あま (ama); うな (una); うみ (umi); うん (un); え (e); か (ka); た (ta); ひろ (hiro); ひろし (hiroshi); ぶ (bu); まち (machi); まま (mama); み (mi); め (me); わたる (wataru)

⟨umi₁⟩ → */umij/ → /umi/

From Old Japanese, theorized as descending from Proto-Japonic *omi.

Has been thought to have been derived from a compound. There are two leading theories regarding the ultimate derivation:

• Shift from 大 (ō-, “big, great”) + 水 (mi, “water”, combining form).[2]

This is problematic phonetically because there is no known term having a related shift from /opo/ → /oː/ → /o/ → /u/, and semantically as there already exists a compound 大水 (ōmizu, “flood”).

• From う (u-, stem indicating “ocean”) + 水 (mi, “water”, combining form). The u- stem is evident in 魚 (uo, “fish”) and 潮 (ushio, “salt water; tide”), and in the 海 (una) element in various ancient terms (see below).

• (Tokyo) う​み [úꜜmì] (Atamadaka – [1])[3][4]
• IPA^(key): [ɯ̟ᵝmʲi]

海(うみ) • (umi) 

1. a sea, an ocean

   海(うみ)の中(なか)にはいろんな生(い)き物(もの)が暮(く)らしています。

   Umi no naka ni wa ironna ikimono ga kurashiteimasu.

   There are all sorts of creatures living in the sea.

   海(うみ)に行(い)こうよ！

   Umi ni ikō yo!

   Let's go to the beach!

   Antonym: 陸 (oka, riku)

2. a lake

   Synonym: 湖 (mizuumi)

3. (figurative) an object covering over a large area, as in 血の海 (chi no umi, “pool of blood”) or 火の海 (hi no umi, “sea of fire”)
4. (planetology) a mare (dark surface of a celestial body, thought to appear like a sea)
5. (calligraphy) in a 硯 (suzuri, “inkstone”), a reservoir where water is stored

   Synonym: 池 (ike)

This is the most common general term in modern Japanese for sea or ocean.

• 海(うみ)を渡(わた)る (umi o wataru, “cross over the ocean → go to a foreign country”)

海(うみ) • (Umi) 

1. a female given name

• The umi entry in Gogen-Allguide (in Japanese)

From Old Japanese. Thought to be comprised of う (u-, stem indicating “ocean”) + な (na, ancient alternative form of possessive particle ⦃⦃ja-r¦の⦄⦄).[5] The u- stem is also evident in 魚 (uo, “fish”) and 潮 (ushio, “salt water; tide”).

First cited to the Nihon Shoki of 720 CE.[5]

• IPA^(key): [ɯ̟ᵝna̠]

海(うな) • (una-) 

1. of the sea, of the ocean

From Old Japanese, from Proto-Japonic *wata. Probably related to Korean 바다 (bada, “ocean, sea”).

• IPA^(key): [ɰᵝa̠ta̠]

海(わた) • (wata) 

1. (obsolete) sea, ocean

Either cognate with 水 (mi, “water”), or an abbreviation of umi above.

• IPA^(key): [mʲi]

海(み) • (mi) 

1. (obsolete) sea, ocean

• 温(あつ)海(み) (Atsumi)

From Middle Chinese 海 (MC hʌi^X).

• IPA^(key): [ka̠i]

海(かい) • (kai) 

1. sea; ocean

From Middle Chinese 海 (MC hʌi^X).

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [hɛ(ː)] ~ [he̞(ː)]
• Phonetic hangul: [해(ː)/헤(ː)]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Wikisource 海 (eumhun 바다 해 (bada hae))

1. Hanja form^? of 해 (“sea; ocean”). [affix]

• 국제퇴계학회 대구경북지부 (國際退溪學會 大邱慶北支部) (2007). Digital Hanja Dictionary, 전자사전／電子字典.

海: Hán Việt readings: hải (呼(hô)改(cải)切(thiết))[1][2][3][4][5]
海: Nôm readings: hẩy[1][2][3][6], hải[1][2][7][4], hái[1], hơi[1], hãi[2], hỏi[2]

1. chữ Hán form of hải (“sea; ocean”).
2. Nôm form of hẩy (“to toss; to throw”).